The Lithuanian Free Market Institute together with six partner organisations in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland, including the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, the Vilnius Vytautas Magnus Gymnasium in Lithuania, the JAMK University of Applied Sciences in Finland, the Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy, Riga State Gymnasium No 1 in Latvia in Latvia, and Gustav Adolfi Gymnasium in Estonia will carry out a project to increase the quality and relevance of economics and social education by developing and introducing an innovative model and methodological guidelines as well as interactive ICT-based educational resources for integrated teaching of economics, ethics and citizenship in upper secondary schools in the Baltic countries. National curricula in the Baltic countries, just like across Europe, attach significant attention to economic, social and civic education. They also recognize the importance of integrated education and make provisions for combining interdisciplinary approaches through employing cross-curricula topics and unified approaches to teaching and evaluation. At present the quality of economic and social education in secondary schools remains low, while integrated teaching is underdeveloped due to a lack of innovative integrated educational approaches and techniques, a lack of proper integrated teaching and learning resources and lacking teaching competences. The development of an integrated model and methodologicial guidelines for integrated teaching of economics, ethics and citizenship will involve analysis of relevant pedagogical approaches and models and the exchange of best practices in educational innovations. The project team will produce a package of innovative ICT-based integrated teaching and learning resources that will consist of 30 integrated modules. The developed methodology and resources will be piloted in at least 30 secondary schools in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. This wil involve a direct target audience of 90 teachers and 600 pupils. A broad-based dissemination campaign will be carried out to present and promote the project results, to raise awareness on the theme and to advance maintstreaming of the integrated teaching approach in economics and social education. Dissemination activities camapign will target the whole secondary education sector in the Baltic states, with a total of 3200 schools, who will gain access to innovative approaches, tools and resources for quality ICT-based economics and social teaching and learning. The project will also promote the agenda and benefit a wide range of other stakeholders, including teacher education institutions, methodologists, teachers‘ continuous professional development centres, and national authorities.
The project “Developing Interdisciplinary Economics, Ethics and Citizenship Education in Secondary Schools” addressed the issue of underdeveloped economics, ethics and citizenship education in the Baltic States due to a lack of innovative integrated educational approaches and techniques, a lack of proper integrated teaching and learning resources and lacking teaching competences. Therefore, the project aimed to improve the quality and relevance of economics, ethics and civic education in upper secondary schools in the Baltic States by developing and advancing an innovative model and methodological guidelines as well as interactive ICT-based teaching and learning resources for integrated teaching of economics, ethics and citizenship. The project was designed to raise the profile, quality and relevance of economics, civic and ethical education, increase awareness of innovative interdisciplinary pedagogical approaches, improve learning content and promoted its digitization, improve access to innovative ICT-based quality teaching and learning resources, enhance student-centered, participatory learning, and promote the development of social competences and transferable skills in upper secondary economics, ethics and citizenship education. The project was implemented from September 1st, 2016 to August 31st, 2018 by a consortium of seven organisations, including the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, a private non-profit think tank, the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, the JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Finland, the University of Latvia (former Riga Teacher Training and Educational Management Academy), and three secondary schools - the Vilnius Vytautas Magnus Gymnasium, Lithuania, the Gustav Adolfi Gymnasium, Estonia, and Riga State Gymnasium No 1, Latvia. In addition, 29 educational establishments, including 22 schools and 7 NGOs from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Denmark were engaged into the project by the partner organizations. The consortium developed a model and methodological guidelines for integrated education, produced 30 interdisciplinary modules for upper secondary education in economics, ethics and citizenship, held five multiplier events for 240 stakeholder in the project countries, including three conferences and two seminars for teachers of economics, ethics and citizenship, organized piloting of the developed educational resources in 22 schools with 50 teachers and 2,000 students in the Baltic States, published scholarly articles, participated in external events and carried out a broad-based dissemination campaign. In the development work, the team analyzed relevant theories, methods and approaches to interdisciplinary social education, organized benchmarking visits to schools and lesson observations, interviewed experts, and organized extensive piloting, peer-reviews and feedback gathering activities. The project resulted in tangible intellectual outputs, including the Methodological Guidelines for Integrated Economics, Ethics and Citizenship Education and a package of curriculum resources for interdisciplinary upper secondary education in economics, ethics and citizenship, comprised of 30 modules designed for in-class use by teachers and students. The project had a direct positive impact on the participants and participating organizations and key target audiences, especially teachers of economics, ethics and citizenship, upper secondary school pupils, and scholars in the field of educational sciences who benefited from increased knowledge about innovative interdisciplinary pedagogical approaches, improved learning content and better access to ICT-based quality teaching and learning resources, improved professional and teaching capacity, the exchange of cross-border and cross-sectoral expertise, and practical utilization of the developed resources in classrooms in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.. The results of the project are expected to have a multiplying effect and bring long-term benefits as the developed resources are continuously used by the participating teachers as well as are adopted by other teachers across and beyond the partnership countries and used in their everyday work with upper secondary school pupils.